Harper

Checking on Grant's condition, she felt his pulse solid and steady. For a comatose patient who didn't receive proper medical care, he was in excellent health. With a square face under his full beard, Harper got the impression he'd been a handsome man in his youth. He didn't look ancient, just older and weathered. Poorly aged late forties or even older but approaching time more gracefully. His clothing was all hides sewn together. Gave her a very mountain man impression.

Researching a cure wasn't very productive. Sure, she'd found information on how people from Earth made anti-venom but the notable lack of horses and industrial equipment cramped that plan.

Unless… no, there had to be another way.

Red light blinking away, her tablet shared the exhausting she was feeling. Harper would have to wait for the morning to do any more substantial research as both she and her tools reached their limit. It was getting dark and she was starting to worry.

"Is this how it was when we left?" Mathew asked, mirroring her thoughts.

"No, it was worse." She gave an anemic giggle. "I didn't even have anyone to worry with."

"Noted."

"So what did you do back on Earth? Let me guess. Firefighter, no police officer."

"Hardly, I was a handyman. Why'd you guess those?"

Harper blushed. "You're heroic."

Mathew sat back and closed his earthy eyes. A short war played out across his face. Before peace came to out the victor.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Anyway, what do you think I should upgrade next?" Harper changed the subject, shooting him the menu.

[“Hub” Prison - valid target

Empower + (0/5000)

Intelectus (0/500)]

"Remember, I can also make changes to the structure."

"Can I get a place to eat?"

That really isn't practical. "Like a dining room?" Harper considered it anyway.

"No, I'm slotting rock tooth slime tomorrow as soon as I can. Open a doorway or something, so I can carve out a new room." Mathew pointed to the wall.

That was practical.

"Okay." Harper put the idea into motion.

Blue arcs of power zapped from her chest into the offending wall. Material stripped away as the wood laid itself down and became a small strip of flooring.

"Is this enough room for now?" Harper finally asked her real question. "I want to find out what the Hub Intelectus is but…"

"You're not sure if that's selfish curiosity."

"Yes! Thank you!"

"Go ahead, Harper." Mathew straightened his shoulders as he would sometimes before saying something deep or meaningful. "Being selfish is a valid choice." His voice dropped back to normal. "Not that this is selfish. But even if it was, it'd be just fine."

Harper didn't like the idea of Mathew endorsing selfishness.

Over the next several hours, she funneled her magic into their prison.

[Intelectus (500/500)]

Warden Harper, Hub Intelectus reporting. Her own voice rang in her head.

"Can you talk out loud?" Harper asked.

"We've been talking all evening." Mathew raised his brow.

"Not you. The voice in my head." Harper paused. "Like a real voice. Oh my god, I am not helping my case."

That's quite alright, Warden. I know you are sane. My capacity is limited without additional power. Battery 0/250. I've taken the liberty to assign you as a prisoner, so I can drain your energy at night. No more waking up and having Amber calm you down until you can sleep.

"So, what can you do?" Harper asked.

"Oh, your intelectus." Mathew got quiet as though she was on a phone call.

Currently, my capacities include monitoring activity within the hub at a focus comparable to yourself. Given my lacking dimensions, I see everything at all times. Further, I may be able to control devices designed for my specific control or otherwise compatible. Gracie is an excellent example. Sorry the door, I call her Gracie.

"How about slotting the hibernation fortification?" Harper asked.

That will allow me to defend the prison by non-lethal methods. Also, control any inmates that become unruly. Finally, medical hibernation would be an option. More may become available upon reaching enhancement +.

Willing the hibernation over, Harper felt a handoff. Where the Hub Intelectus carried the weight halfway across.

"Did it work?" Harper said.

Yes, all is as expected. Notice, Ben and Amber are returning presently.

"Thank you, Hub."

Please don't call me that.

"What do-" Harper's question was cut short by Ben and Amber barging in.

Looking like a beardless emo Santa, Ben had a black bag slung over his shoulder. Behind him Amber was the alluring worker elf carring bin sized leaves. Comparison aside, they brought gifts.

Laying the sac on the ground, Ben snapped his fingers and it unfurled. What had been layered so close together, she thought it was the same cloth separated. Gently laying its corners down like a picnic setting.

"Your meal, Sir." Ben bowed.

"Thank you." Mathews grounded eyes roved the now dead spider.

Other than the absurdly cute pink on white, she noticed its carapace featured some harsh edges and ridges. Make them more pronounced and it would go from normal arachnid creepy to monster devil spider creepy. Bugs can just go and die.

"Are you sure this is all for me?" Mathew asked.

"Yeah, looks to be plenty still around," Ben replied. "We'll get that cooked and have you healed by the time the Alpha threat arrives. Eh, hopefully."

Rotating the spider and inspecting it from all sides, Mathew finally spoke. "That'd be a waste of fuel."

He stabbed the spider with Ripper the bladed spine-looking sword. The black markings across the blade lit with a dark purple hue and she could feel his magic working. The sensation was something like being near big electrical equipment. It would hum away even if you couldn't tell the exact work it was doing.

Mathew's eyes got bigger and bigger.

"Yeah," Ben's grin faded. "Monsters are on a whole nother level as they contribute to reserves. Another hunt and you'll be above a thousand. Plenty of room to heal on then."

"Nope, I'm already at fifteen-hundred and climbing." Somehow Mathew seemed sad about the good news.

"What the hell, man!" Ben exclaimed. "How?"

"Magical efficiency when digesting. You get magic stealth; I get fat." Mathew joked back.

"Lucky you. A hunt will go a lot longer that way." Ben reasoned. "Well, maybe not. You're the only one who benefits from it."

"I can pick a perk that lets me share reserves."

Ben looked startled for a moment. Fear, hope maybe? Harper couldn't read him well. "How does that work?"

"Don't know yet. Hold on, is it important? There are a lot of other tasty perks to choose from."

"Hard to say. The less we hunt for food, the better. Territories go on high alert looking for poachers. If Grant and I had double the reserves, we'd have been able to help others out more." Ben got very still.

"What others?" Harper asked.

"Many, too many to remember. Some weeks they die so fast me and Grant don't get to see them. Most of the time, we find them. Either dropping dead to the ground from their transition or, like you, alive for a while." Ben's eyes got glassy. "After a while, you don't even bury the corpses. I'm sorry but know that when the time comes, I'm leaving. The only hope people from Earth have here is if me and Grant can find the secret to the town. If uh... if he doesn't wake up and I can't keep him safe, I'll carry on alone."

Shit, that's fucked up. Now Harper understood why the late teen looked so much older. The weight of what he had to do to survive. It was so much, she couldn't wrap her head around it.

"Yeah, that's not going to be a problem this time." Mathew began to change as they watched.

Restoration occured before their eyes. Second degree burns cooled down and smothed. Third degree burns flaked away as new pink skin grew from underneath. Restoration was only part of his display.

First, it was his bare chest. Underplates of bone grew over everywhere his skin had once been. The existing plates expanded over top, becoming a complete piece of armor. Layered so even the gaps were protected.

His transformation didn't stop there crawling outward from his shoulders both arms became encompassed with bone armor. Joining his exoskeleton from one clawed hand to the other.

Heat radiated from his body as he continued to metamorphose. Climbing his collar, new bone plates formed in series. A 'v' in the front that was reminiscent of a suit and vest stacked over and over one collar higher each layer of bone. Across the back of his neck, the plates covering his spine became prominent. Tying into the forward plates like ribs off a spine.

Finally, a puff of purple smoke emitted with his hot breath and wrapped around his head. When it cleared, a bone monster stood where Mathew was. Deep-set eyes peered from a pearl helmet. His blocky nose was replaced with an angled bone plate with vents. Bridges of material spanned from above to below his ears.

Opening his jaws, the bottom half of the helmet split in a jagged line. "That's going to take some getting used to."

Silence unspooled.

"What does it feel like."

"Not much. I feel like I'm in a cardbord box."

"Can you take it off?"

Mathew didn't answer.

Ben spoke up. "Doesn't matter, how strong is it?"

"My durability is eight and a half, and that puts my skeleton at about thirteen and a half times original strength. I can't honestly say I know enough structural composition to judge my new shape." Mathew said. "I've never been that handy of a handyman."

"That's how we lived. I thought- never mind. Try this." Ben picked up a dagger-length shard of glass salamander.

Mathew took it. Adjusting his grip, the glass squeaked when he tightened his grip. The first test was pedestrian. Dragging the sharp edge across the new armor, both materials held. Stabbing at his thigh, the tip of the glass slit through the dirty dress pants and stopped solid. Raising his arm higher, Mathew tried again. Again, nothing. Handing the shard over to Ben, Mathew gestured him to try.

"What? no!"

"I'm not strong enough to test this correctly yet. Go ahead and give it a try. Stab me. You know my health will cover any issues that could happen. We have to know."

Taking the shard, Ben psyched himself up to attack. "Okay, okay, okay." With a deep breath, Ben lunged the knife forward into Mathew's stomach.

Harper felt the tug again of someone using supernatural power.

With a speed that outstripped her perception, Mathew dodged and struck Ben with a flat palm sending him to the prison floor.

An urge like before drove her to put a stop to whatever was going on. Only the memory of regret gave her the moments pause to ask if she should get involved yet. In this pause, she continued to watch.

"We are not fated to die." Mathew's anger radiated like the excess heat of his transformation.

"Let's get you trained then." Ben stapped his fingers and his net wrapped Mathew up and carried Ben to his feet on one fluid motion.

"Trained?" Mathew strangled out. "I want to get power leveled!"

Pulling the tether behind, Ben dragged Mathew away to the newest expansion. It wasn't a lot of space but they hadn't put anything breakable over there.

This whole thing stuck with Harper. Mathew had sentenced himself to a suit of armor. What had she done? Providing the hub was automatic and hardly counted as value-added. She hadn't done anything.

Time to change that. Turning her mind to the task, she began her project of growing the blue shield sporechild.

Hub intelectus? Harper thought.

Yes, Warden?

Can you give me options for growing the Hub?

Yes, Warden.

Alright I think I came up with your name too.

Amber

Not having a reliable weapon bugged her. Plenty of people called in paranoid about having a gun all the time. Psh, what could she have to be paranoid about? After all, she had a gun.

Alas, here and now ,she only had fourteen rounds left and one in the chamber. On top of that limit, she was in big game hunting territory. Her Glock just wasn't going to cut it past the weak fodder.

She had limits. Looking at her status fixture, they were quantified for her. At some point in time, she may become strong enough to wield an absurd bow able to hurt the defensively enhanced monsters. For now, she needed an equalizer. Good old Colt would have to wait for his reawakening. That didn't leave a lot of force multipliers. What she'd come up with was to make a compound bow. Compound bows transferred more of their input energy into the arrow than a traditional bow would. If there was a chance for her to cause damage with her meager strenght, this was going to be her way.

So limiting factors would be how to reduce the material to the exacting specifications. Amber was pretty confident she had a lead on that one.

After that, it'd be trial and error. No matter how close she got with the first design, there would be tuning to do.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Amber got to work. Keeping the idea as a centerpiece in her mind every time she got angry.

There wasn't much of a chance that she would be able to duplicate a propper riser. Instead, she'd have to ignore cutouts and deal with the heavier end product. Off to a great start, she started sketching. A knife-like shard of glass cut into the leaf without getting quite to carving pressure. It was easy enough to work with that she didn't have mistakes from excessive force but it was restraining enough to keep her from cutting wild lines.

Each part would take several drawings to get them right. Maybe not a full three sides but at least two of them even on the most simple parts. Getting to the cams and webbing was something she was dreading but that was a problem for future her.

As she engineered the weapon, memories of shooting on the farm came back to her. As much as she felt attached to guns, she'd always had a soft spot for archery. It was the memories of when she was young that did it. Hitting the foam target was an experience she'd never forget. Everyone was there and there'd been shit-talking. Right until then Amber hadn't known what to do about shit-talking. It almost seemed aggressive in a bad way. Then she let loose. Course, the first hit on the target was beginners luck. The next one and she heard it. Uncle Darrel turned to her Dad and told him he had something special. He just gave a fool smile and said 'o course he already knew it, he wadn't no fool.

She would pull their home back together no matter how many bodies she'd have to stack to make it happen. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. And I am smooth.

Declaring something was special. Words had meaning. Lots of people got all caught up on facts, relying on the certainty of science and empirical evidence in the face of the unknown. She got it alright but there was another truth. That what you willed into being could become reality. That was the power of declaring something and following through on it. That was how anyone worth remembering ever did something important. So, Amber declared herself to be smooth. With a little smile, she fought back her frustration and kept carving her picture out.

By the time she got it all laid out, everyone else had finally turned in for the night. Though the boys had kept at it for hours into the night before calling it quits.

Well, that was fine still had to figure out how to make arrows. That wasn't really a problem. She'd figured out right away how to slowly chip away at a shard of glass until it was arrow-like. They chipped away like volcanic rock. A process too loud for something she'd subject her sleeping friends to.

That's what they were to her, friends. Sure they just met and some would claim acquaintances but when you fought together, the bond was just thicker. So friends it was.

Using a glass knife, Amber trimmed down one of the straight thin branches they'd gathered after the spider hunting. That spider hunt was a hassle and half. She'd gotten the distinct impression that he'd almost got them hurt. Her magic exerting itself on her behalf had never happened before. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and I am smooth.

Letting the frustration go, she moved on to binding the 'feathers' in this case an alien leaf she found. The leaf reminder her of the main fin of a largemouth bass. It'd press flat if you run your hand down the spine but go the wrong way and you'd get stabbed. After peeling a string-sized strand of webbing and meticulous, tedious, irritat- smooth work to wind all three split leaves to the shaft at the same time, Amber had completed her first fletching. After giving the world a moment to update her skill she got back to work. Okay then.

Affixing the preparied glass arrowhead to the arrow, she felt ready to pierce a heart. Something was still missing.

All through the night, she kept working. Making her own units of measure and a crude set of tools. Making a blueprint with mechanical precision took until the door slat to the outside world lit up. Something was still missing.